Page 17 - Voice of the Persecuted Christians - Apr-Jun 2023 - 122

Great opportunities are being created for the gospel in Ukraine. Stock photo
of the local population, the Russians, who knew they were not welcome
or liked, tried to appear as the great liberators and the only source of provision – so the church became the chief competition.
He added; ‘People are used to having decisions made democratically but war is not a time for discussion. What I say is, “Don’t choose a pastor if you are not going to do what he says during wartime!”’
‘When the Russian soldiers said to us, “We set you free”, we asked, “From what? Water? Electricity?”’
Before being forced to leave the city, Pastor T helped many Ukrainians in the Russian-controlled territories
to flee the occupation. He believes that the challenge of living under oppression and then becoming refugees will help ministers to be more effective and to help those in need.
‘I was not surprised when the war started; I could see from what happened in Georgia in 2008 [the invasion by Russia] how things were developing. Months before the war started we talked in church about what we would do, and I started becoming involved in the evacuation of thousands of orphans.’
As well as facing the threat of
being robbed by the invaders or being arrested, deported or beaten for showing any pro-Ukrainian sympathies, Christians not belonging to the Russian Orthodox were also
at risk. ‘Priests and pastors in some occupied cities were arrested and beaten, even deported from the area, and some were killed,’ said Pastor T.
‘In the last 200 years there have
been no more than 20 or 30 years
of freedom for evangelicals in the Ukrainian church. There have been waves of freedom and terror, so it’s not strange for Christians to be persecuted. We accept that persecution can come
– it is not punishment. God wants us to be stronger.
He told stories of Christians trying to escape the cities that had come under attack and being beaten and abused by Russians at the borders.
Despite the horrors of war, the church has been strengthened. Stock photo
‘And we know how to accept refugees and how to be refugees. We know how to be persecuted. Ukrainians have now experienced church in other western countries so the church in future will be a strong, cross-cultural movement. Borders mean nothing for Christianity. And people in the West now know what a refugee is because they are their neighbours, real people.’
‘Even members of the Ukrainian Orthodox were forbidden.’
While some believers hid their faith, others declared it openly, so being a pastor under occupation threw up a host of new challenges. ‘The church is a place for kindness, softness, mercy and forgiveness but in wartime you need to be strong and make difficult decisions. Sometimes even what may appear cruel decisions such as giving medicines and food to some but not others. At the same time God healed people in their homes. He knows what war means; we didn’t.’
Despite running a vibrant church for refugees in another Central European country, Pastor Oleg has returned to the war-torn port city of Odessa on the Black Sea to preach the gospel and minister to the local church and the wider Ukrainian church as a whole.
Opportunity amid the tears
One man, his wife and nine
foster children were stopped at a checkpoint. ‘When the guards found out he was a Baptist they made him wait and told him they were waiting for two more men to come. What they
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